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Ljubljana is just right.

I’ve only been in Ljubljana for a day now but I love it! Everyone here is warm and friendly, the air is fresh and the watermelon is cheap. I purchased loads of watermelon yesterday and today for 0.45 per kilo. That’s the cheapest I’ve found so far. The watermelon here isn’t as tasty as the watermelon in Palma, but it’s good enough for me to eat all day!

I’m renting a room in a house just outside the city. It’s a 30-minute bus ride from the city centre or an hour and 45-minute walk. I walked into the city today since I didn’t walk that much in Paris. My legs need to move!

I appreciate being surrounded by picturesque hills and farmland outside the city even though Ljubljana isn’t huge or bustling with tourists like the last few places I’ve visited. I have a food shop a short 15-minute walk away and all the watermelon I need to get me through this next week.

Today was my first day wandering around the city centre and I enjoyed it. I picked up my train ticket to Rijeka since I head to Croatia next week, loaded my bus card, and ate watermelon along the river. A perfect day!

Ljubljana is tiny compared to Paris and it happens to be the least populated place I’ve visited so far (not including the wee village of Lisówki in Poland, located outside of Poznań).

Here are all the places I’ve visited on this 6-month Euro trip, ranked in ascending order by population:

Ljubljana: 272,140 (2012)

Palma: 399,093 (2014)

Poznań: 552,393 (2012)

Barcelona: 1.602 million (2014)

Paris: 2.244 million (2010)

Berlin: 3.502 million (2012)

Palma was the most enjoyable so far and I expect Ljubljana won’t be too far behind. (Let’s see how the rest of the week pans out!) Even though Palma was packed with tourists, the overall size of the city was manageable to me. Sunshine, beaches, watermelon, and making a new vegan friend there didn’t hurt either.

I’m over big cities. I’ve visited large cities before, most notably London, NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia…the list goes on, but I was never too excited about them. I definitely wouldn’t want to live in a massive city like London or NYC long-term. These both have close to 8.5 million people living there! I wouldn’t mind spending a few days in these locations but could never settle there. I prefer smaller cities: fewer people, less noise, fresher air, and not as much garbage.

The largest city I’ve lived in was Glasgow. Glasgow never seemed like a big city to me but surprisingly, its population (as of 2011) reached 598,830. Glasgow is still my favourite city of all time, despite all the other cities I’ve visited on this trip.

Tomorrow I’ll visit Ljubljana’s Central Market and Tivoli Park. I’m hoping to meet up with another fruit vegan from Instagram. I can’t wait! I’m also filming bits and pieces of my days here and will edit them together in a video before I head to Rijeka next week. Stay tuned!